Among her playwriting honors are: 2017 Winner of The Von Marie Atchley Award for Excellence in Playwriting from Native Voices at the Autry; Finalist for the 2015 Native American New Play Festival (Oklahoma City Theatre Company); the 2008 Garrard Best Play Award from the Five Civilized Tribes Museum; a 2006-2007 Aurand Harris Fellowship from the Children’s Theater Foundation of America; a Fringe First Award for Outstanding New Drama (Edinburgh); and a Drama-Logue Award.

Her published plays include LINCOLN VACATION, MOLIÈRE IN LOVE, RE-SOURCING, UP TO DATE, LADY-LIKE, PORTRAIT OF A NUDE, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (adaptation), AMELIA LIVES, and THE OTHER SHAKESPEARE. Her playwriting is published by Dramatic Publishing Company, Smith & Kraus, Playscripts.com, Broadway Play Publishing, & Heinemann. Two monologues from RE-SOURCING are published in 2009: The Best Men's Stage Monologues and Scenes (Smith & Kraus).

Partial List/Description of Plays by Laura Shamas (sometimes listed as "Laura Annawyn Shamas") with some publishing information if applicable, and in chronological order of date of creation (followed by the actual publication date where applicable). All plays listed below have had readings, workshops, and/or productions.

THE OTHER SHAKESPEARE (published by Dramatic Publishing Company, 1980)7 women, 7 men. Full-length. Based on an idea of Virginia Woolf's, the play imagines the life of a talented Shakespeare sister in Elizabethan England.TALKING LEAVES [Winner, 2008, 5 Civilized Tribes Playwriting Award]3 women, 5 men. Full-length. The search for the body of Sequoyah in 1845.

AMELIA 6 women, 6 men. Biography. Full-length. 1928 - 1932: Four key years in the life of American aviator Amelia Earhart. [Winner of 3 ACTF awards.]

LIVING DOLL (published by Dramatic Publishing Co., 1987) 2 women, 2 men. One-act. Drama. Rose, who used to run a doll hospital, now needs care herself.

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (adapted from Lady Joan Lindsay's novel, published by Dramatic Publishing Co., 1987)18 women, 8 men. Full-length, period. What happened on top of Hanging Rock in Austrailia that Valentine's Day? The effects of heartbreaking mystery on community and family.

LADY-LIKE (published by Playscripts.com, 2004)3 women. Full-length, period. The true story of Eleanor Butler, Sarah Ponsonby, and Mary Carryll, the Ladies of Llangollen. [Winner of Drama-Logue Award and Marquee Award]

UP TO DATE (published by Playscripts.com, 2004)6-11 women. Comedy. A look at dating and romance in the 21st century from the female perspective.

MOLIÈRE IN LOVE (published by Dramatic Publishing Co., 2009)2 women, 5 men. Comedy/farce, full-length. The story of how Molière and Corneille wrote a play-ballet in 30 days to please the king--and why.

RE-SOURCING (published by Broadway Play Publishing Company, 2008)3 women, 3 men. Political satire, comedy. When workers in Arkansas find their jobs have been outsourced to India, they devise a plan.

VENUS IN ORANGE (co-written with Paula Cizmar) 10 women. Choreopoem exploring the pressures of beauty and love in contemporary times through the prism of Aphrodite/Venus.

AND ON DAY SIX2 women, 4 men. Two bio-paleontologists find their work will be compromised when faced with a new funding mandate.

LUCKY IN HOLLYWOOD2 women, 2 men. A Native American family and a "Hollywood" family find their lives intertwine for generations, with surprising ramifications, spanning from 1943 - 2024. 2015 Finalist: Native American New Play Festival, Oklahoma City Theatre Company.CIRCULAR1 woman, 1 man. A young army psychiatrist becomes entangled in the world of The Odyssey on her first tour of duty in Afghanistan.

LADY-LIKE [the musical] Book by Laura Shamas. Music and lyrics by Lisa Donovan Lukas. 3 women. A musical biography of "The Ladies of Llangollen." In 1780, two aristocratic Ladies and a maid fled abuse in Ireland, to do something that had never been done before. To listen to our demos, please click here.

MERRION SQUARE1 woman, 2 men. An exploration of a 19th century love triangle.

Short Plays by Laura Shamas (2014-2016):

THE CUMIN GUARD, 3 women. An American reporter investigates the aftermath of a protest in Cairo.